Council agrees grant to help fund continuing work of local homeless charity

Local charity Wintercomfort is set to receive new funding from Cambridge City Council for a period of two and a half years.

The new funding will initially cover the period from October of this year until the end of March 2021, subject to formal adoption of the council budget for 2019-20.

Wintercomfort provides a range of services to people who are homeless, formerly homeless or threatened with homelessness. It comprises three elements:

• Welfare services aimed at people sleeping rough in Cambridge
• A learning and development service
• Management of two social enterprises which employ people who use Wintercomfort’s services

The charity currently receives funding from both the city council and Cambridgeshire County Council to deliver its welfare, and its learning and development services. The new funding will help Wintercomfort  to continue providing these services after the current funding agreement ends in September.

Wintercomfort’s welfare service offers facilities and assistance to homeless people including:

• Washing, showering and laundry facilities
• Help with finding accommodation, food, healthcare, counselling and financial support
• Access to specialist support including on substance misuse, mental health and legal advice

Its learning and development service offers a range of activities, courses and placements for homeless and formerly homeless people including art, access to cultural activities, formal education and training, gardening, ICT, literacy and numeracy, sport, work placements, volunteering and employment opportunities.

The award of a two and a half year grant at this point will help bring the grant period and awards process in line with future financial years.

The council has been a supporter of Wintercomfort for many years in a number of different ways. This has included providing financial support, making a bid to the government to fund a refurbishment project, working with them to help reshape their organisation to provide the service they currently deliver, and a project to establish a cloud-based monitoring system to make reporting easier.

Cllr Kevin Price, Executive Councillor for Housing said: “Wintercomfort have a long track record of providing important and effective work with homeless people in Cambridge, both by providing them with support and assistance and helping them towards a route out of homelessness.

“This new grant agreement will help them continue with their work in the coming years. We look forward to continuing our relationship with Wintercomfort as we continue to tackle homelessness and rough sleeping in the city.”